


To Reign Is Worth Ambition

by god_is_undead



Category: Cowboy Bebop (Anime)
Genre: Ficlet, Vicious is not a nice man, both spike and julia are only mentioned, he also probably takes things alarmingly personally
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:08:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23964403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/god_is_undead/pseuds/god_is_undead
Summary: Ficlet of just over 400 words.Vicious reacts to killing Mao, well, in his own head anyway. He has thoughts.
Kudos: 5





	To Reign Is Worth Ambition

He wanted Mao to know.

He wanted _everyone_ to know, otherwise why use his own sword?

“This won’t do you any good—”

 _You blind idiot_ , Vicious thought.

Mao spoke with heartfelt urgency. Absurd. Pointless.

“The times have changed. The syndicates can’t survive like this any longer; this endless bloodletting is tearing us all apart—”

Vicious heard, with savage satisfaction, the sound of his sword drawn through Mao’s throat. He stood still, waiting—he needed the confirmation, but heard a wet, struggling gasp.

“ _If Spike were here…you would **never** have done this_…”

Vicious smiled, surprised and almost disappointed that the man had waited until the point of irrevocable death to have the nerve. So close, and yet so fucking far—how had he ever thought so much of such a fucking coward?

* * *

*

The Van had given Mao their blessing to begin negotiations with the White Tigers just as they had given Vicious leave to kill him for it.

The gods giveth, and the gods taketh away.

 _If Spike were here…you would **never** have done this_.

He wasn’t wrong, at least not in so many words. Mao had always had the notion that Spike kept Vicious under control.

Well. Maybe that had been true once, in a sense, or maybe that was just how it was seen—

That was before the whole fucking world shattered, and the rules that were supposed to matter _didn’t_. Don’t lie. Don’t cheat. Blood in, blood out.

The gods giveth, and the gods taketh away. The Van had given Mao their blessing because they didn't want to be seen at odds with the prevailing mood, but they gave it to Vicious in turn because they needed an excuse to get out of them—everyone below was just there to be used to stay in power. That was the way of things. The rules only mattered to keep those in power, in power.

It had been, at one time, that he believed the rules meant something, that however fucked things got, they still, on some abstract level, gave form. The bare truth to what Mao had said was in that Vicious never would have woken up to this underlying truth if Spike hadn’t started seeing Julia behind his back, and then left, if Mao hadn’t then harbored the delusion that he would be accepted back into the fold. Eventually Vicious came to realize that it wasn’t a bad joke: the rules would have been suspended in this and only this case, because Spike was Spike.

There was nothing in this world worth believing in. If this was the hand he was dealt, fuck them all: he’d take the lot.

**Author's Note:**

> IDK I've been tossing this about for forever and it's still utter shit.
> 
> Title is from Paradise Lost, the line above "better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven."


End file.
